Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Europeans pissed at Ahhnold over Tookie

File this under "European and Stupid": Europeas are mad, and dissapointed at Arnold for rejecting clemency for Tookie's execution. Some Austrians actually went as far as demanding that he would be stripped of his citizenship. Fo' real!
The execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams sparked outrage Tuesday throughout Europe, which has a deep aversion to capital punishment sustained by the painful memory of state-organized murder during the Nazi era. The disappointment was particularly strong in Austria, native country of Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, where many had hoped the former bodybuilder and film star would spare the 51-year-old Williams.Leaders of Austria's opposition Green Party even called for Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian citizenship — a demand rejected by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel as "absurd" despite his government's opposition to the death penalty.
But that's not all: The Germans, the french, the italians and the vatican are all mad at Arnie as well...
Volker Beck, a leading member of the opposition Greens party in Germany, expressed disappointment at the execution. "Schwarzenegger's decision is a cowardly decision," he told the Netzeitung online newspaper.In Graz, Schwarzenegger's hometown, local Greens said they would file a petition to remove the California governor's name from the city's Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. A Christian political group suggested it be renamed for Williams.
"Mr. Williams had converted and, unlike Mr. Schwarzenegger, opposed every form of violence," said Richard Schadauer, chairman of the Association of Christianity and Social Democracy.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI's top official for justice matters denounced the execution."We know the death penalty doesn't resolve anything," said Cardinal Renato Martino. "Even a criminal is worthy of respect because he is a human being. The death penalty is a negation of human dignity."
Most of the outcry in Europe came from opposition political parties, city leaders, human rights groups and churches, with national leaders remaining silent.
"Schwarzenegger has a lot of muscles, but apparently not much heart," French Socialist Party spokesman Julien Dray told RTL radio.
In Italy, Franco Danieli, vice president of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized executions as an act of "dehumanization."
"The execution of Tookie Williams is even more intolerable exactly because he had managed to transform the negative into the positive, violence into nonviolence," Danieli said.Amnesty International also condemned the execution."Tookie Williams' violent past was well known, but he had become a textbook version of rehabilitation and his execution was a travesty of justice," said Kate Allen, the group's director in Britain.
A travesty of Justice?
WOW. Ok, how about we have some persepctive here?
Let's see if you can follow this with me: Tookie killed people, and he founded a gang that killed people and ruined hundreds if not thosuends of lives. The fact that after his arrest, conviction and being put on death row he finally saw the light and wrote a couple of children books against joining gangs, well, it's pretty goddamn conveinent and doesn't change what he did. Will executing him bring back those he killed? No. Will it bring some sense of Justice to the families of his victims? Sure. Is it an appropriate way to make him pay for his crimes? Nope. He should be executed 4 times, one time for each life he took by his own hands. But since that's impossible, killing him once will have to do. The fact that you can only kill him once, well, that's the travesty of justice. Ok?
That's all there is to it.
Any questions?

22 Comments:

Personally, I am against the death penalty - too expensive- doesn't make the world safer- any psychiatrist will tell you victoms who embrace "comes to terms" or "forgiveness" do better than those who seek "justice" or "revenge")- countries that have the death penalty usually are much more violent than those that don't

But I am not fanatical about it. I can understand your points.

In this case though, I think Tookie could have been very usefull in preventing futher gang-violence with his books, interviews, etc..

I think if Arnie said "He is guilty as sin and deserves to die. But he is making California safer with his actions, and we need him to fight 'thug-life'", I think Republicans could have lived with it.

According to the guy who prosecuted the case, this reformation was a product of Tookie's legal counsel, and all faked. Tookie never expressed remorse, never co-operated with the police, never did one thing to reduce the harm caused by his gang.

So he "wrote" (co-wrote? signed-off on?) a couple of books, and gave some self-serving interviews. That's not necessarily evidence of reform, but could be mere self-interest.

If those facts were before the Governator, he might well have concluded that he would not be willing to confuse a Hollywood stunt with reality.

I disagree about the not making society safer. With the uber liberal judges and politicians we have you can't trust that a life sentance will be in fact a life sentance. All it takes is one Governor who communtes all death sentances and one liberal judge who says "poor Tookie, you;'ve served long enough. Just look at those 400 books you sold!" and lets him out. With death we nevcer have to worry about a monster like Tookie ever hurting anyone again.

He didn't write those books, his girlfriend did and then he added his name to them. It was a farce.

I forgot something....Tookie never gave up gang life. According to the Warden and Prison staff, he still had a monthly money allotment coming in from the Crips (couldn't prove it but it was a substancial montly deposit that was more than his family had to give) and was still running things inside.

As others have said, Tookie's "reformation" was apparently junk. He never gave up the gang life and never did anything to cross the Cripps. His was just the sort of all talk reform that celebrities love.

France is dead to me. Muslim immigrants are going to put Chriaq's head on a pike in a few years, or decapitate him on Al Jazeera. And you know what? I don't care.

The other's? Not sure how I feel about them. I guess I don't feel to good, considering they've been trashing Americans for years. To hell with them. They just gave Shwarzenegger an endorsement. The only thing that would have made it better is if Nobel "peace" Prize winning hatemonger Pinter had come out with a public condemnation calling Shwarzenegger the anti-Christ.

I'm not angry? I just think if you murder, you face a jury and then you serve your sentence. If it is a bad enough crime and you are sentenced to death you face your sentence. I bet Tookie victims wished they had an extra 25 years like he got with appeals. A death sentence is the only way to guarantee that society will never have to be at that criminal's mercy ever again.

Um, if you lock that criminal up for life, society will be just as safe.death penalty is about revenge, not about justice.

But discussions on pro or against death penalty aside: Austria and the other countries who criticized Schwarzenegger do not have the death penalty.Schwarzenegger actually went against the laws of Austria. So if they want to revoke his citizenship, I dare say they're well within their rights.

Anonymous,If you can prove with 100% certainty that he's the murderer then execute him, within a year, but if DNA evidence is exonerating people who were executed, jailed for 16,18 & 20 years (not a small numner of cases by the way -164 post conviction exonerations, visit www.innocenceproject.org ), then there something really wrong with the system, and it's way better to let a 100 guilty go, than kill an innocent man, who might not be innocent, or maybe he is, no one knows with a 100% certainty.

Um, if you lock that criminal up for life, society will be just as safe. death penalty is about revenge, not about justice.

Not true at all. All it takes is a Governor to set aside death penalty convicts (has already ahppened in one state) and a sympathic Parole board and you have a convicted murdered walking amoung us. Most sentanced to life only do a small portion of that time. It is also very much about Justice, you take one you give yours...Justice!

Where were all the Hollywood elites last month when they executed Kenneth Boyd on 12/2, or Shawn Humphries on 12/2, or John B. Nixon Sr. (77) yesterday? These guys were guilty too, but white. Hmmm. Racism and hypocrisy burn don't they?

The arguement that life in prison is just as safe as the death penalty is wishful thinking.

For example...Hmmm I'm going to rob the 7-11. I'm a habitual criminal. If I get caught again then I will get a life sentence. Do I kill the ONLY witness (clerk on duty) or do I let the one person who can identify me live? If the max penalty is the same, then my decision is easy. Yeah, I think I will kill him.

Hmmm I'm currently in prison serving life. That guy/guard is really pissing me off. Do I kill him? I'm serving life anyway so there is no further punishment they can give me. Yeah, I think I will kill him.

That said the death penalty should be reserved for the WORST kinds of crime. Killing some guy in a barfight, for example, is horrible but it's certainly not the worst. Shaking your baby when frustrated beyond anything you've ever felt is horrible too but it should not be death penalty material.

To begin with, I am not big on the death penalty because of certain high profile cases in Canada where the prosecution railroaded obviously innocent people plus the many people being exonerated by DNA. While there are many cases where people should die for their crimes and to prevent the certainty of future crimes, there seem to be only two organizations that can carry out the act: an angry mob or the state. Personally I would take my chances with the angry mob.

But if you are going to have the death penalty it should not be applied only to people who don't have the wit or literary ability to stage a "transformation" in jail. Becoming "born again" or using the time and energy which your crime has earned you; time and energy that most people need to use doing productive work for society just to put a roof over their head and food on their table, to become an "author" should not give you celebrity status or a get out of the chair free card.

Mohamed said:"What a splendid group of angry and frustrated nut cases, with Jordan as always being exception."

It is easy to dismiss people as nut cases. You might wish to try explaining why we should not be angry and frustrated over this pity party for poor Tookie.

Right on SM. As usual you're right on point with this one. Not only did tookie shoot 4 people at short range with a shotgun, he was the leader of of one of the two largest gangs in this country.

Some people are questioning his guilt, even if he didn't commit those particular crimes, you don't come to lead those sorts of people by handing out cookies.

And there is the idea of command responsibility to consider, how many murders did he order? How many little kids were killed by stray bullets fired in drive-by's done at his behest?

And there's snoop (ever the loyal crip himself) cheering for clemency. If I didn't know better I'd say that this whole media circus was drummed up by Arnold's political opposition. But surely the California Dem's are above such petty (and morally reprehensible) political posturing.

Along those same lines I also noticed that the Dem's last attack dog (Sheehan) held a small protest outside the US embassy in Spain yesterday, I guess she needed to so she could claim the trip as a 'buisness expense.'